We spent the weekend on our annual trip to the Canaan Valley. We rent a
cabin very large house near one of the ski areas with a number of friends. We spend the days hiking and playing outside and the evenings eating too much, playing board games, and working on puzzles. I always look forward to the trip and the time spent with friends. This year, it was 65 degrees and raining when we arrived in Davis. Two days earlier, there was over a foot of snow up on the plateau, but two days of rain washed it all away. By Saturday morning, the temperature had dropped more than 50 degrees and a couple of inches of snow fell in the last few hours of the storm.
Saturday, we hiked up to the top of the plateau and in to Dolly Sods. It was ten degrees and the winds were blowing at 40 mph. It was also still snowing lightly.
Dolly Sods in a rare moment of sun on Saturday. It was not remotely warm. Any time we were exposed on the ridge, we were getting blown around pretty badly. Given the combination of wind speed and temperature, we were pretty cold.
Rocks on the west side of Dolly Sods.
Michael and our friends hiking in the snow and wind.
The ice-covered trail. Because of the rain the day before, a lot of the trail was covered in water. Even though it was well below freezing, it hadn't had time to freeze yet.
Sunday, we woke up to this:
That motivated no one to head outside right away. However, almost as important as the temperature number is the wind speed on the lower right: 0 mph. That is a rare, rare thing in the West Virginia Highlands.
While we were eating breakfast, we noticed that, because it was so cold, moisture was crystallizing out of the air and floating around in the sun like glitter. You can just see it in the top center of the photo above. It was magical and fascinating to watch.
Another view of the "glitter" and the hoar frost on the ridge behind the house.
Michael and I drove up to a parking area near the top of the ridge and hiked from there to the Forks of Red Creek. We figured that, with all the rain a couple of days before, Red Creek would be running high and the waterfalls would be pretty impressive. Even though it was five degrees when we started, which was colder than the day before, it was so much more pleasant. There was no wind, which never happens in Dolly Sods and it was bright and sunny.
Hiking south along the Valley View Trail.
Ice feathers on the trail.
Hoar frost on a tree.
Looking back north towards where we started.
A wild turkey track in the snow.
I mentioned that, the day before, water covered the trail in many places. By Sunday morning, it was almost all frozen. In this case, the trail was basically an ice rink. We had microspikes on, but the ice was hard enough that they wouldn't dig in very well, so it was still pretty slow going.
The hike over Breathed Mountain was really pleasant. There are a couple of ways to get to the Forks of Red Creek, but Breathed Mountain is the only one that doesn't involve a major stream crossing. We saw seven (!) backpackers in two separate groups hiking the other direction. They had all started on Friday night in all the rain. One of them said his tent poles froze together after the temperature dropped Saturday morning.
Fresh bobcat tracks on Breathed Mountain.
The Left Fork of Red Creek
Icicles on Red Creek.
A cairn marking the trail
The waterfall at the Forks of Red Creek. This was as close as I could get. There was so much water in the creek and no way to cross the Left Fork, let alone the main stream. If you want to see a comparison, the photos
on this post show what it looked like in the summer a few years ago.
After spending a few minutes at the falls, we turned around and headed back. We wanted to make sure we got to the car before dark and we definitely didn't want to worry anyone at the cabin. The temperature started dropping pretty quickly as the sun sank towards the horizon.
The Valley View trail in the late afternoon sun.
Michael hiking towards the parking area.
All said and done, we hiked 8 miles and really enjoyed doing something a little different.
